


When TARDIS's Collide

by parttimefemmefatale (writingramblr)



Series: The Adventures of Twelve and a Rose from another Earth [6]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Canon, Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/M, Fluff, Timey-Wimey, alt!Rose, the truth comes out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-12
Updated: 2014-08-12
Packaged: 2018-02-12 19:30:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2121996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingramblr/pseuds/parttimefemmefatale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Twelve hasn't ever told Rose what drew him to her. He's been too afraid he'd lose her, and that would tear him apart. </p><p>An accidental encounter with a past incarnation of himself brings things to a head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When TARDIS's Collide

**Author's Note:**

> this came from a dream i had about Paul Mcgann, and the fact that I just love writing about him meeting Rose...even if it's technically a different Rose.
> 
> and there's loads of angst here. Rose needed to know the truth eventually.  
> the whole into darkness thing obvs is from the s8 promo, but the main plot starter/joke is from this comic i saw on tumblr, link here:
> 
> http://halorvic.tumblr.com/post/91692176839/
> 
> p.s. all her comics are fantabulous....but i'd love a wee bit more Rose/Doctor :D

"Where are we going next Doctor?"

Rose looked at him with a cheerful grin, and he grinned back, his right hand reaching for hers, while his left took hold of a lever nearest them both,

"Into darkness!"

The lever was thrown, and the TARDIS wheezed and groaned, before the lights went out.

Rose sighed and squeezed the Doctors hand,

"Tell me you didn't mean that literally."

The Doctor frowned, though she couldn't see, and shook his head, which she also didn't see,

"Not in the least. I wonder what's happened."

The last time things had gotten rocky was on the trip to Rose's earth.

With his superior Time Lord senses, he could see fairly well, but he knew she must have been almost blind.

"I'm going to go see about a torch."

Rose murmured, and the Doctor squeezed her hand again,

"Yes of course. I'll stay here and try and figure out what's the matter."

The TARDIS might have been pitch black, but _she_ still guided Rose carefully along the handrails to the nearest door.

Rose pushed it open slowly, and stepped inside. The room was glowing golden, tinted blue by a nearby light, and she frowned, calling behind her,

“Doctor? Do you have another console room?”

To her right was a magnificent library, and a crackling fireplace, flanked by two cozy looking chairs. It was a room she had heard the Doctor speak of, but had never seen, nor known it was so close to the main console room.

At her words, a figure moved from behind the blue lit glass tube, where she could see glass tumblers moving up and down.

A soft voice called out,

“Hello there.”

Rose swallowed and crept closer to the person who had spoken. It was a man with shoulder length chestnut hair, which fell in curls framing his face, and captivating eyes, a stunning shade of blue,

“Hello.”

She couldn’t think of anything more to say, and when he smiled at her, she felt her breath catch.

“How did you find your way into my TARDIS? We’re in flight…it should be impossible.”

He looked simply curious, not angry or worried, and Rose fumbled for the right words. She knew now this had to be the Doctor himself, perhaps another incarnation, later or earlier, that was the question. The Doctor had told her about regeneration after their last adventure, where he’d nearly been stepped on by a dinosaur, and given her a heart attack in the process.

“Uh…”

She looked behind her again and prayed the Doctor, her Doctor, wasn’t too far away.

“It’s quite alright, I won’t hurt you.”

The man, the next Doctor stepped closer to her, his hands outstretched and she smiled slowly,

“I’m not afraid of you. It’s strange, you look so different now, I almost expected you to still have gray hair.”

She reached out, for he’d gotten even closer still, intent on studying her perhaps, and she could almost touch his hair.

Did he blush? Her fingers made contact with his forehead, and stroked his skin on the way to traversing his curls.

“You’re so young…”

His eyes widened,

“Am I older to you, as you know me? Should I know you?”

 

“NO! In fact, you need to step back from her right this moment.”

A loud Scottish burr broke the quiet mood, and Rose nearly jumped out of her skin. Finally the Doctor had arrived, and she’d been of a half a mind to start touching this new man like he was some sort of sculpture.

Well, he did have a lovely face, not that her own Doctor wasn’t very handsome in his own way. This one looked as if he read poetry, danced to violin music, and clearly enjoyed reading by a warm fire.

“It’s perfectly fine Doctor, I was just saying hello.”

Her Doctor strode forward and yanked her hand from his next self and stepped between them.

A frown graced the handsome younger Doctor’s face, and he looked at Rose before glancing to himself,

“I say, what’s the matter? You’ve gone and let your companion wander into my TARDIS and you’re about to blame me?”

Rose’s Doctor sighed,

“I’m only trying to keep my past, your future, intact. I’ve crashed into you by mistake, and I’m ready to get the hell out of here.”

Rose smacked his arm lightly for his swearing, while her mind raced, taking in the new information. This younger Doctor was not after hers? He was from the past? What did he mean, intact?

“Now listen…”

“Please not now, do as I say, I beg you. Go back out of here. The lights will be back on any moment.”

Her Doctor told her, a grim expression on his face, one only reserved for moments of danger.

“I can’t see a thing. Let me stay, I’ll just go sit by the fire yeah?”

Rose didn’t let him argue, she yanked her arm from his gentle hold and crossed the room, pulling a chair in front of the fireplace and pretended she wasn’t about to eavesdrop on the two.

  
“What is going on? That girl has such a curious timeline. She touched my forehead and I saw such things…is she more than human?”

The past Doctor murmured, and Rose heard her Doctor shush the man,

“Don’t be so loud. She’s human, as far as I know. She’s from a parallel world. I met her by accident. She’s from your future as well. Well, another like her. That’s why you can’t have met her, or have seen her. You _can’t_ know her. You need to forget this entire thing, the instant we’ve gone. _Do you understand?”_

Rose didn’t like how angry her Doctor sounded, and she didn’t like what he’d said. Another her? What on earth did that mean?

“All right. I understand, no need to be so rude.”

Her Doctor snorted,

“Well I can’t be like you, all tea and tomes all the time. I grew up, I grew out of it.”

The younger Doctor sniffed,

“Are you saying there’s something wrong with being elegant and kind? I think not.”

“You’ve held on a bit too much from my fifth. Why don’t I remember this?”

The younger Doctor sighed,

“I suppose it’s because I must forget, so I have forgotten, and so you don’t recall it.”

Rose’s Doctor nodded,

“Very well. It’s as it should be. You don’t want to know what could happen if she doesn’t leave your mind. C’mon Rose, we’re going now!”

Her Doctor’s voice lifted at the last words, and she rolled her eyes, leaping to her feet to join him beside the younger incarnation.

“I guess I can’t ask to travel with him for a bit?”

She winked at his younger self, who definitively blushed before nodding his head to her.

“I’m afraid not. It seems we’re not meant to meet yet. I do look forward to that day, very much.”

He took her hand in his, and placed a gentle kiss on the back of it.

Rose glanced at her Doctor, and hoped he might pick up the hint.

He remained stone faced, and when the younger Doctor let go of her hand, nodded.

“Good day to you. I trust you’ll do as I instructed?”

Rose rolled her eyes,

“Okay you can stop it now. I heard everything. And don’t think you owe me an explanation mister.”

She jabbed a finger into her Doctor’s chest, and ignored his wide eyed stare, turning right to his younger, lovely self and slipping her fingers around the green silk of his cravat,

“And you, I’ll never see you again, so here’s something you won’t forget.”

She had no need to stand on tiptoes, as this Doctor was perfectly at her level, and she pulled on the silk, bringing his face to hers, before kissing him soundly on the mouth.

He might have been surprised at first, as was her Doctor, but his arms quickly wrapped around her waist, and she found herself being kissed back with pure passion.

Only a loud cough broke them apart, and Rose didn’t move swiftly, she wanted to relish every second. This Doctor tasted sweet, like he’d been drinking white wine, and not hot tea as her Doctor liked.

He was so beautiful and kind, she wondered what it would be that broke him, and turned him into her gray haired steel eyed straight backed adventurer.

It was a chilling thought.

“Goodbye Doctor…see you someday.”

She whispered to the long haired man, before she pulled away, and let her Doctor lead her out the door.

***

“Now talk. I’ve been with you for months now. I’m ready to hear it.”

Rose frowned at the Doctor, as he took to the console, flipping switches and twisting knobs, driving them far away from the other TARDIS they’d collided with.

“Now Rose…”

He began slowly, and she shook her head,

“No. Don’t give me that. I won’t be scolded like a child. I’ve seen you. You looking at me when you think I can’t see. After a disaster, after a calm day. It doesn’t matter. You look at me like you’re seeing a ghost. You have such sadness in your eyes. I want to end it. I want to help. I want you to smile at me, and _mean it._ Please Doctor…what is it about me that makes you sad?”

“Rose…I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I couldn’t tell you, because it hurt too much. It still does. But I lost someone, once, and she was…” he paused, hands finally stilling on the console. One rose to rub his face, all the way from his forehead down to his chin, and he shook his head, “I loved her. But I couldn’t tell her. I never could. She was you. From another Earth. A parallel world. I had to let her go, to let her be happy. By now, she’s long since passed, and I’ll never be able to see her again, not without seriously jeopardizing both our timelines.”

Rose was stunned. She lifted her hands to her mouth, but they shook so hard she balled them into fists instead.

“So that’s why it was so important you forget me? The past you? Because…”

“So many things depend on our meeting, our adventures together. Not simply the love we had. Lives at stake, millions of them, and all because of your alternate self.”

“Doctor…is that what I am to you? A replacement? A next generation model?”

The Doctor shook his head again, and she could see tears in his eyes, something she rarely saw,

“No Rose. Never. You are the woman I love. The only woman I could ever love. I think that’s why the universe brought us together. It was no accident, me finding you. I hope you can forgive me for not telling you everything. I understand if you want to leave. I won’t stop you.”

Rose shrugged,

“I love you too. I didn’t plan on anything like this ever happening to me. I will say, I can’t imagine there being another person out there, like me, but someone as you described. Someone who’s a hero. I think I’d almost like to have met her. Impossible, I’m sure. I hope she made you happy. I hope I can live up to her. To your memory.”

The Doctor closed the gap between them, no longer afraid of her trying to flee,

“Oh Rose…no. Don’t say that. You are a completely different person. You’re wonderful. Marvelous. You make me the happiest man in the universe. If I’d never known her, I’d never have met you. Don’t think for one second you are not a hero. You’ve done as much or more than she could even dream of. You are in every way, Rose Tyler, the woman I love. You’re seared into my hearts.”

Rose’s shaky hands lifted to touch his face, and she nodded,

“I’m so glad I met you.”

His voice broke with his reply,

“Me too.”

 

 

 

 


End file.
